Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)

Subject: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: GUEST,Mary Katherine
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 02:50 PM

The great country singer Hank Thompson died of lung cancer today. Story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071107/ap_en_mu/obit_hank_thompson_1

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 02:57 PM

Hank Thompson


I always liked Thompson a lot. But I must say that I would have thought he had died long since.

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 03:24 PM

Actually Ebbie I did too but he was still performing last month! He was diagnosed with an "aggressive" form of lung cancer around the end of October. That's aggressive!

Rather than an obit, HERE is his Bio at the C-W Hall of Fame website.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Beer
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 03:48 PM

One of the good old boys.
Another sad departing.
Blessings to his family and friends.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: bankley
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 04:11 PM

another fine finger-picker done gone. "Carry me back to old Alaska , The squaws along the Yukon are good enough for me"

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 04:14 PM

Surely, there is some sad irony here! Didn't he have a big hit with "Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette"?

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Louie Roy
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 05:07 PM

I might be wrong but wasn't one of his great hits Humpty Dumpty Heart

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: oldhippie
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 05:23 PM

My favorite was "The Night Miss Nancy Ann's Hotel For Single Girls Burned Down".

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: topical tom
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 05:39 PM

So much for me as a music critic. I preferred Hank Thompson to Hank Williams!

    But Hank Thompson was one of my favourite singers as a child.He had a great vooice and a feeling for the music. Country music has lost a treasure. God bless you, Hank.

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: fumblefingers
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 05:50 PM

"Smoke Smoke Smoke" and "The Night Miss Nancy Ann's..." were big hits for Tex Williams. Thompson had a thousand others.

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 07:17 PM

Porter gone a few days ago and now Hank. Such a loss to some such as I who long for the days past when the airwaves played good country music.
RIP!

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 10:14 PM

I was one of those odd but neat things---His first giant hit,"Wild Side of Life," prompted the "answer song" by Kitty Wells, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels." That became Kitty's first great hit as well and her signature song.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Cruiser
Date: 07 Nov 07 - 11:04 PM

"My tears have washed I Love You from the Blackboard of my heart"

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: bankley
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 08:01 AM

Porter gone ?.... do you mean Wagoner ? He just released a new CD produced by Marty Stuart... timely

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Beer
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 09:06 AM

Yes, Porter Wagner did pass away. Stilly River Sage started a thread on October 29th. with the news.
Beer(adrien)

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Fortunato
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 11:15 AM

Hank was an icon for me. His "The Wild Side of Life" was the first song I sang on a big stage with a country band at Whipporwill Park in Va in 197...well it was a while ago.
    Recently Susette and I did "Humpty-Dumpty Heart" here at the Austin Grill in Maryland.
    Hank's band, the Brazo's Valley Boys had THE SOUND, for my ear, rising above all the country bands and paving the way for Asleep at the Wheel.
    I've been playing "One Six Pack to Go" acoustically since college, probably several times a year.
His music has been one of the central themes in my musical life.

Thanks, Hank
Chance Shiver

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 11:48 AM

Rest in Peace...

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: bankley
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 05:56 PM

Thanx, Beer.... I didn't know... I met the ol' Wagonmaster himself at the Gatineau Clog a few years ago.... his suit almost blinded me..
sparkle and twang

I'm glad that he did a project with Marty, who has a great respect for 'country's' legends.... saw them on Letterman not that long ago.. well, we still have Haggard, Jones, Willie, Little Jimmie, and Whisperin' Bill Anderson.... from that era... not many Hanks left tho........

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Beer
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 07:38 PM

The only one that I believe is still alive is Hank Locklin.

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: pdq
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 08:02 PM

Two more Texans are still hangin' in there: Ray Price and Charlie Walker, both 81.

Mac Wiseman is not just around, his singing is still great. His duet record with John Prine came out this summer and I have played it more than any other CD this year, mostly while driving to a house I am remodeling. It's called "Standard Songs For Average People" and is just what it says. Standard Country based in the 50s is so much better than the noise polution on most AM radio stations, I expect that many artists will return their music to a simpler time. Mac , BTW, is 82 and handily out-sings Prine.

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: bankley
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 09:21 PM

Hank 'Frauline" Locklin.... and Ray Price, what class acts...Ray was the jazziest of the stars, I believe.. Willie Nelson used to play bass with Ray..in the Cherokee Cowboys, there were some heavyweight pickers in that band... Buddy Emmons on pedal steel, with twin fiddles, the whole kit... Daryl McCall came in on bass later on...he was a powerful singer as well.. did all the harmonies.... and Mac Wiseman, I used to listen to him live on WWVA radio, out of West Virginia, on Sat. nites when the reception was okay..... I knew someone, not far from here, that bought one of his big Martins..... anyhow, brings back memories, bless 'em all and their generosity with the music... they sure were appreciated when I was a young lad..... still are.... thanx folks....

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Beer
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 10:04 PM

I know this line was used in some modern Western song but I use to listen to WWVA on a little transistor radio under the covers.
Sorry, don't want to take away from the thread as it appears I am.
But you know, those memories of Hank Thompson, Porter Wagner, Hank Snow, Hank Williams and on and on were what we all related to and shaped our musical "careers".
Thanks to all of these great artist. And to those who are still with us.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 11:57 PM

I knew Wagoner from television program that ran when I was a kid, though I never watched it. I don't know Thomspon at all. I've never been a country music fan. There have been a few folks in the news lately, though. There is an old old theater in Arlington, Texas, where a guy has run performances forever. Put Leeann Rimes on stage as a child, etc. Johnnie High is his name, and he's 78. They probably knew each other.

link (it isn't durable, but you can read it for a couple of more days I think).

Starmaker on Center Street
He put LeAnn Rimes onstage when she was 6. He's boosted the careers of many a musician at his Arlington theater. Now, at 78, Johnnie High has even bigger plans up his sleeve.

Marvin Blum's spirits sank when he drove up to the Arlington Music Hall.

Johnnie High's Country Music Revue was staging an open audition that weekend morning, eight years ago, and hundreds of hopeful performers -- many of them youngsters, in Western costume -- formed a line that snaked around the building.

The Fort Worth tax attorney turned to his 13-year-old.

Elizabeth Blum wasn't a country singer. She knew Tchaikovsky, not Tammy Wynette. Twice monthly she and her parents and grandparents attended the Fort Worth Symphony. At home her dad listened to classical music and Broadway show tunes. But the child desperately wanted to sing -- to entertain -- and her father had told Elizabeth, promised, that once she completed her Hebrew studies in preparation for her bat mitzvah he would help her pursue her dream.

Even so, the elder Blum knew this was a bad idea.

"Lizzie, this isn't your world," he said as they sat in the car. "You don't belong here ... Let's go home."

"Dad, we're already here," she replied. "Let me try."

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: bankley
Date: 09 Nov 07 - 08:19 AM

good story.....Johnnie High.. bet there were a few jokes about that handle....
just a ps to mention that Willie Nelson, Ray Price, and Merle Haggard released a cd in March entitled "Last of a Breed", on Lost Highway Records....... fitting..

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Cruiser
Date: 09 Nov 07 - 11:13 AM

Mr. Johnny High is the consummate Country Gentleman.

Take time to read the article SRS linked to.

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Nov 07 - 12:56 PM

I don't want to hijack Thompson's obit by posting the entire story here, so I put in the the "News of Note" thread (direct link)

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Hank Thompson RIP (Nov. 2007)
From: bankley
Date: 09 Nov 07 - 03:24 PM

thanks SRS. now that's country!